Food for Thought #2

Художникикони цениI guess what I was ranting about last time is ‘the power of positive thinking’. But when you hear it like that, it makes it sound like one of those things you discuss in health class, like good body image or self-esteem. It seems like something you leave behind at some point, because things get real.

They do, don’t they?

Or do they? Remember when I asked you to close your eyes and try to capture something about that moment? Our minds tend to take in negative impressions and hold them very dearly. This is likely because our brains are wired to remember negative things easier – at one point in history, remembering a negative fact (like what plants to avoid, or setting oneself on fire) was important to survival. Now that we’re civilized, being happy is a focus, but our brains aren’t very good at storing and recalling a good thought as they are at remembering a bad thought. However, I asked you to capture a moment with your eyes closed. I’m trying to trick you in to capturing a happy thought because your instinct is to close your eyes only when you are safe, and often when you are safe you are among friends or family or doing an activity that you enjoy, which is what I was trying to go after. By capturing that moment, by marking it as a comfortable moment by closing your eyes, you’ll recall it as such.